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Monday, June 20, 2011

Steve's (Not So) Late Night Double Feature Picture Show ...

Remember yesterday's rerun church-less movie of the week, the one that I said I didn't see for whatever reason? Well, when I heard the annoyingly stupid song "Two Blind Love" I realized that yes in fact I DID see that particularly grating movie before.

I lied to you, blog. I'm sorry.

So, to make it up to you, I have set up an amazing double feature. It's two sci-fi flicks stuffed with bad movie previews, cartoons, and a whole bunch more.

"Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.

Westworld was the last movie MGM produced before dissolving its releasing company, and was the first theatrical feature directed by Crichton. It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view. The film was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Golden Scroll (a.k.a. Saturn) awards, and was followed by a sequel film, Futureworld, and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld.

The storyline goes as this: two guys (Peter and John) decide to have a vacation at a new kind of amusement park. Sometime in the near future a high-tech, highly realistic adult amusement park called Delos features androids that are almost indistinguishable from human beings. For $1,000 per day, guests may indulge in any fantasy, including killing or having sex with the androids. The guys can shoot and fight with the robots, and even have sex with the prostitute robots. They have a great time up until the robots start to turn on them.

The majority of the film is involved with both of the characters running and fighting for their lives. The movie is a cautionary tale of society’s reliance and dependence on technology for entertainment and stimulation. The main characters escape reality in order to live out their dreams in an artificial environment, and leave their morality at home. They take pleasure in ‘killing’ the robots and gaining pleasure from the ‘sex-bots’.

The movie begins with a byte which sets the movie up by interviewing some past customers of the amusement parks. They are all satisfied customers which would lead us to believe that this will be a trouble free outing for our main protagonists. This is of course not the case by the end of the movie.

A remake was speculated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Tarsem Singh directing and Terminator 3 screenwriters Michael Ferris and John Bracanto to write the script. The remake was still in development as of 2007, but a director was not attached to the film. Quentin Tarantino was approached, but turned it down. On January 19, 2011, Warner Bros announced that a Westworld remake was still happening.

In the scene when Richard Benjamin's character splashes The Gunslinger in the face with acid, Brynner's face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.

A sequel to Westworld, Futureworld, was filmed in 1976, with only Brynner returning from the original cast to reprise his Gunslinger character. Four years later, in 1980, the CBS television network aired a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld, expanding on the concepts and plot of the first film with new characters. Its poor ratings caused it to be canceled after only three of the five episodes aired."

Intermission features retro drive-in commercials, a Schoolhouse Rock song, and the entire classic Disney cartoon The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

"Day the World Ended (1955) was the fourth film directed by Roger Corman. Rick (Richard Denning) is a heroic scientist who, among others, must face off against a mutant monster (Paul Blaisdell) after an atomic war destroys human civilization. Chet Huntley of NBC, later of The Huntley-Brinkley Report, narrates.

The film is referred to in a 2001 horror film of the same title, The Day the World Ended. The film was remade in 1967 with the title In the Year 2889 with the dialogue repeated almost entirely verbatim.

The Day the World Ended is frequently described as the film that marks Roger Corman’s first foray into the sci-fi/horror/monster genres for which he is best remembered as a filmmaker. This isn’t quite accurate, as Corman had previously produced The Monster from the Ocean Floor and The Beast with a Million Eyes, but it was the first such movie Corman directed himself, and the first of his films to be released under the banner of the newly re-christened American International Pictures.

The film also makes for an admirable introduction to Corman’s catalogue from the 50’s, showcasing most of the characteristics for which Corman would become famous. Foremost among those characteristics, of course, is Corman’s legendary budgetary stinginess, which is in full effect here, as what might be the last seven humans on Earth square off against the aftermath of nuclear war, each other, and what one previous reviewer called 'one of Roger Corman’s cheaper monster suits.'

As the opening title card makes such a big point of telling us, The Day the World Ended begins with The End. In this case, The End is a nuclear war. The details of the war-- how it started, who was involved, its overall course-- never come up. Rather, in what is surely the movie’s most realistic facet, the very fact that the war happened renders any discussion of it irrelevant. All that matters now, and all that the film will concern itself with, is the struggle of those few survivors to remain survivors.

Were it not for a few interesting ideas about the apocalypse and life thereafter, this film would have nothing going for it but that shitty monster (which, by the way, was both built and played by Corman’s favorite sfx guy, Paul Blaisdell, who was also responsible for the huge Venusian carrot in It Conquered the World)."

... and the whole thing starts off with one of my favorite songs and a perfect way to start things off.

So dim the lights, make some popcorn, and watch this amazing double feature with your buddy Reverend Steve!

Spinal Tap, the Break Like The Wind Tour, 1993 (Yes I know they are a FAKE band but they played Mesa Amphitheater and I was there front row, and it was an awesome 3hr set with an intermission - I bought official Spinal Tap ear plugs)

Primus, the Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People Tour, 2003 (They did a full two hour set, then an intermission, then they played the Sailing The Seas Of Cheese album in its entirety)

Favorite Movies: Plan 9 from Outer Space, Wet Hot American Summer, The Avengers, The Giant Claw (amazingly horrible), Scott Pilgrim VS The World, Ed Wood, Psycho (the original and none of that other crap, oh, and also, the big end speech from the Dr. isn't in it, because that's horrible), Glen Or Glenda, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Three Caballeros, This Is Spinal Tap, Manos: The Hands Of Fate, A.P.E., Rock of Ages (soooooooo bad!!!), Cabin in the Woods

Favorite Avengers: Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Squirrel Girl (Great Lakes). Also, I feel the need to mention that I currently have a level 23 Thing in the online game Marvel Super Heroes. Plus, he has a sidekick. It's Spider-Ham, the pig Spider-Man. He walks around with me cracking wise and shit. It's crrrrrrrrrazy cute!

Favorite Secretary of State: Albert B. Fall

Favorite Newscaster: Sacramento News 10's smug-faced Dale Schornack, whom I repeatedly list on Facebook as my wife but he keeps denying it. You can't run from the truth forever, Dale Schornack. You can't run forever.

Favorite People To Hate: Madonna, Collyne, L. Ron Hubbard, upper middle class and upper class white people, Debby, 80% of the population of the entire state of Oklahoma, fucking Risa, Jenny McCarthy the child killer, Tom

Favorite Thing: Stuff

Favorite Way To Die: Murdered, smothered to death by gigantic sweaty breasts while watching an Ed Wood triple feature at a classic old school drive-in. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? ... a guy can dream ...

Favorite Strange Movie Fact: In the 1962 movie "King Kong VS Godzilla" there is a character, the head of a pharmaceutical company, who is named Taco. Taco. He is named Taco. He is an Asian man who is named Taco. WHY IS NO ONE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS?!?! And there's also an Asian woman in the movie named Tammy. Now this is where I draw the line. I can believe that a giant ape and a giant radioactive lizard fight on the top of Mount Fuji, but I absolutely CANNOT BELIEVE that somewhere in Japan there is an Asian chick named Tammy. My suspension of disbelief does not go that far.

Favorite Fetish: TIE between a sweaty body and boobs (various sizes)

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Rrrrrreally Good Books I've Read Recently ...

"Dead Presidents" by Brady Carlson

"Lafayette in the Somewhat United States" by Sarah Vowell

“The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute” by Zac Bissonnette.

"Silver Screen Fiend" by Patton Oswalt

"The Great Zoo of China" by Matthew Reilly

"The Disaster Artist" by Tom Bissell (the inside story of the movie THE ROOM - a MUST READ for bad movie lovers!)

"Yes Please" by Amy Poehler

"The Museum of Hoaxes" by Alex Boese

"Kids Are Weird: And Other Observations" by Jeffrey Brown"

"The Know-It-All" by A.J. Jacobs

"Game (The Game Trilogy, Book 1)" by Anders de la Motte

"A Game of Life" by Jeffrey Brown

"The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture" By Nathan Rabin

"The De-Textbook" by Cracked.com (rrrrrrrrrrreally makes you look at your entire existance differently)

"Cruise Confidential" by Brian David Burns

"You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes" By Nathan Rabin (this man can do no wrong-excellent read!!!)

"Star Wars: Jedi Academy" by Jeffrey Brown

"The Leftovers" By Tom Perrotta (... I just wish the ending gave more answers, you know?)

"To Hellholes and Back" by Chuck Thompson

"The Stench of Honolulu" by Jack Handey (every paragraph is hilarious! )

"How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe" by Charles Yu

"I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)" By Chuck Klosterman (this book is the closest that Chuck Klosterman has gotten to writing a book as good as his first few books - damn good stuff!)

"Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life" by Dennis Reynolds

"Joyland" by Stephen King

"Old Man's War" by John Scalzi

"Redshirts" by John Scalzi

"NOS4A2" by Joe Hill (WOW!!!!!!!!)

"Jam" by Yahtzee Croshaw

"Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" by Lawrence Wright (it is an absolute crime that a dangerous cult like Scientology is allowed to continue)

"The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

"America, You Sexy Bitch" by Michael Ian Black and Meghan McCain

"Amped" by Daniel H. Wilson (author of ROBOPOCALYSPE - this man can do no wrong!)

"Thank You For Smoking" by Christopher Buckley

"Here We Go Again" by Betty White

"Drop Dead Healthy" by A.J. Jacobs

"Top of the Rock: Inside The Rise and Fall Of Must See TV" by Warren Littlefield

"You're Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death, and Other Humiliations " by Michael Ian Black

"The Incredible Change-Bots" and "The Incredible Change-Bots Two" by Jeffrey Brown

"Girl Walks Into A Bar ..." by Rachael Dratch

"Avengers Assemble: The Oral History of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes" by Brian Michael Bendis

"Emperor Mollusk VERSUS The Sinister Brain" by A. Lee Martinez

"Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die" edited by Ryan North

"A Year At The Movies" by Kevin Murphy

"Divine Misfortune" by A. Lee Martinez

"All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture" by Harold Goldberg

"The Postmortal" by Drew Magary

"Size Matters Not" by Warrwick Davis

"The Last Testament" by God

"God If You're Not There I'm F*cked" by Darrel Hammond

"Damned" by Chuck Palahniuk

"Carrie" by Stephen King

"Unseen Academicals" by Terry Pratchett

"Snuff" by Terry Pratchett

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline (I don't know when the last time was that I had this much fun reading a single book - utterly amazing!)

"Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror" by Jason Zinoman